1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to feed supplements and, more particularly, to a feed supplement for livestock which includes a quantity of paunch manure in a percentage by weight of one percent (1%) to one hundred percent (100%), pressing or squeezing the paunch manure in a press device to remove a large percentage of the moisture content of the paunch manure and then extruding the pressed paunch manure at a temperature of at least 250 degrees Fahrenheit thereby sterilizing the paunch manure and flashing off excess moisture, the extruded paunch manure being used alone or in combination with a dry medium such as soy hulls, hay or dissolved air floatation product, also known as xe2x80x9cDAFxe2x80x9d, for increased xe2x80x9cby-passxe2x80x9d protein and nutritional values.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ideally, one would hope to find uses for various types of waste products produced by industry in order to recycle those waste products to gain beneficial use therefrom. One type of waste product for which little, if any, use has been found is dissolved air flotation product (xe2x80x9cDAFxe2x80x9d) which is a product removed from waste water treatment plants. The DAF is formed at the top of the settling tank of the sewer treatment system and is composed generally of oil and grease separated from the sewer effluent. The DAF is then mechanically and/or chemically removed from the top surface of the sewer water being treated and thus becomes a liability as it is difficult to properly dispose of and can be environmentally hazardous. Commonly, the DAF is placed in a landfill or the like and left to decompose, which presents additional hazards should the DAF leak into the groundwater. There is therefore a need for a use to be found for DAF which will substantially lessen or eliminate the need for the DAF to be disposed of in a landfill or the like.
Another type of commonly produced waste material which results from a different industry, namely the livestock slaughtering process, is paunch manure. Paunch manure is the partially digested feed residing in the first stomach of the ruminant after slaughter. During the slaughtering process, the stomach is removed and the contents are emptied. Currently, as with DAF, there is no commercial use for the paunch manure, and the paunch manure must be disposed of by putting it in a landfill or by another such disposal method. Furthermore, the paunch manure, like DAF, must be disposed of in an environmentally safe and economically efficient manner, and such disposal methods are not always readily available. Therefore, as with DAF, there is a need for a use to be found for paunch manure which will substantially lessen or eliminate the need for the disposal of the paunch manure in a landfill or the like.
Of course, these are only two of the virtually innumerable types of waste products produced by various industries, but these two products have specific features which lend themselves toward additional uses. Specifically, both DAF and paunch manure include minerals and nutrients which can be digested and processed by ruminants provided that the ruminant will ingest the material in the first place. However, as both DAF and paunch manure are quite malodorous and generally repulsive to touch and eat, in order to encourage a ruminant to ingest the DAF or paunch manure, the material must be combined with other ingredients for use as a feed supplement. There is therefore a need for a combination of ingredients including DAF and/or paunch manure which will produce a high fat, high nutrition, high bypass feed supplement.
Numerous types of feed supplements and methods for producing the same are described in the prior art including such feed supplements as Pahoundis, Sr., et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,024, Bunger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,536, and Stahler, U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,640. While each of these prior art feed supplements disclose feed supplements which are generally adequate for their intended purpose, there is still a need for feed supplement which is high in fat content, thus providing increased energy for livestock growth, and which is nutritionally superior to those feed supplements found in the prior art.
Therefore an object of the present invention is to provide an improved feed supplement for livestock.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved feed supplement for livestock which includes a percentage of DAF and/or paunch manure combined with a dry medium material in order to render the DAF and/or paunch manure edible for a ruminant.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved feed supplement for livestock in which the combined DAF and/or feed supplement with the dry medium material is extruded to xe2x80x9cflash offxe2x80x9d the excess moisture and render the processed supplement stable and generally acceptable for storage regarding odor, texture and shelf life.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved feed supplement for livestock in which the dry medium material would be of the nature of soy beans, soy, corn, ground hay, wheat, oats and other such dry medium materials.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved feed supplement for livestock in which the temperature of the mixture is raised above 250xc2x0 Fahrenheit during the extrusion process or during the mixing process in order to properly sterilize the mixture thereby removing substantially all bacterial contaminates from the mixture.
Finally, an object of present invention is to provide an improved feed supplement for livestock which is generally safe for ruminants to ingest and is safe and economical to manufacture.
The present invention provides a feed supplement for livestock including, in a feed supplement combination, a quantity of waste product material selected from the group comprising dissolved air floatation product (DAF) and paunch manure and a quantity of dry medium selected from the group comprising soybeans, soy hulls, soybean protein derivatives, wheat, wheat middling, wheat straw, hay, alfalfa, sugar beet tailings, sugar beet pulp, sugar beets, corn, corn stalks, corn cobs, popcorn husks, sweet bran, silage, meat and bone meal, blood raw or meal form molasses, oats, oat straw, barley, barley straw, restaurant scraps, table scraps, sunflowers, sunflower seeds and hulls, milo, wild grass, suburban domestic grass clippings, cottonseed, cotton hulls, and cotton burs. The waste product material comprises between one percent (1%) and ninety-nine percent (99%) of the feed supplement combination. The feed supplement combination is then processed through an extrusion process involving the cooking, grinding and mixing of the feed supplement combination under pressure and elevated temperature, wherein the temperature of the feed supplement combination is raised above 250 degrees Fahrenheit to sterilize the feed supplement combination thereby eliminating substantially all bacterial contaminants from the feed supplement combination and substantially decreasing the moisture content of the feed supplement combination.
The present invention further contemplates a method of producing a feed supplement for livestock comprising the steps of providing a feed supplement combination including a quantity of waste product material selected from the group comprising dissolved air floatation product (DAF) and paunch manure and providing a quantity of a dry medium, with said waste product material comprising between one percent (1%) and ninety-nine percent (99%) of said feed supplement combination. The feed supplement combination is then processed through an extrusion process involving the cooking, grinding and mixing of the feed supplement combination under pressure and elevated temperature, and the temperature of the feed supplement combination is raised above 250 degrees Fahrenheit to sterilize said feed supplement combination thereby eliminating substantially all bacterial contaminants from said feed supplement combination. Finally, the moisture content of said feed supplement combination is decreased.
It is clear that the features of this invention combine to form a superior feed supplement for livestock. Because the invention utilizes previously unusable waste products to form the supplement, it is very beneficial to the environment and to reducing landfill deposits. Furthermore, the resulting feed supplement is high in xe2x80x9cby-passxe2x80x9d proteins and other essential nutrients, and thus is an excellent addition to the feed of almost any ruminant. Finally, the present invention can combine the DAF or paunch manure with tens and even hundreds of different dry mediums yet still retain nutritional value. This means that the maker of the feed supplement may combine various ingredients to come up with the best combination for his or her livestock, yet retain the high nutritional value of the present invention. It is thus seen that the present invention provides a substantial improvement over the prior art.